Study Shows Employees are Putting Their Companies at Risk

• By Sydny Shepard
• Oct 29, 2015

A recent study by CompTIA, Cyber Secure: A Look at Employee Cybersecurity Habits in the Workplace, shows that the majority of employees are unaware of how their poor security habits could leave their organizations vulnerable to major cybersecurity breaches, despite the fact that major corporations have lost millions dealing with hacker situations.

The study shows the growing gap between the amount of cybersecurity attacks and the number of employees who are trained to be highly aware of cyber threats when dealing with company devices, accounts and information.

Many organizations give their employees laptops, tablets or smartphones to work with during their time with the company. While these devices are intended for company use, nearly two-thirds of the surveyed employees admitted to using their company-assigned devices at home for personal use. Every time an employee signs into a personal account such as email, social media, entertainment platforms, etc., they open their device up to potential security threats.

Employees have also admitted to using the same, unoriginal and predictable passwords for both their personal accounts and corporate accounts. They have also admitted to sharing personal information online, such as their full name, email addresses and birth date, in exchange for “more information” or to register for a social media, entertainment or online shopping account. These questions are sometimes clues as to what a user would choose their password to be.

Perhaps the most startling find of the study deals with employees and their care-free use of USB drives. In recent years, some of the most prominent cybersecurity incidents have included USB viruses. They were popularized by “Stuxnet,” the infamous worm which the U.S. and Israel supposedly used to infiltrate Iranian nuclear centrifuges in 2010. Since then, many more attacks have included USB sticks programmed with malware that can quickly infect devices and critical infrastructure.

Even though the USB threats have been all over the news, a social experiment commissioned by CompTIA sought out to find out just how many people would trust a random USB stick. From August to October, they dropped 200 USB sticks in highly public places like airports and coffee houses in populated cities such as, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Washington D.C. The sticks were programmed to take the user to a text file with directions to a link that could be tracked or an alias email address to contact.

After only a few weeks, 17% of the USB sticks were picked up, plugged in and the user followed the directions of the text file. While the study cannot show how many people plugged the USB into their device without clicking on the link, it does show that a good percentage of people will jeopardize their devices based on curiosity. In a handful of the emails received, some asked if a virus was present on the USB, showing that some understood the risks of plugging a random USB into their computer.

The study also polled employees on what they most associated “cybersecurity” with, offering a glimpse into what risks and threats they fear most. The majority (36%), said they associate “identity theft” with cybersecurity while others listed, “hacker” or “malware.” They were also asked what they would do in the event of a breach. While 35 percent of employees said they would change their all of their account login credentials, 20 percent said they would only change the password information on the hacked account. Thirty three percent said they wouldn’t personally do anything, but they would contact their companies IT department. Four percent said they would contact the police.

These findings have brought to light the poor security hygiene of the common employee in this digital era. It shows that the majority of our workforce has not been given proper training to combat a cyber threat. The majority of workers surveyed stated that their organization doesn’t provide any form of cybersecurity education or communicate the best end-user practices.  Those that do administer training, rely on a mixture of online and in-person learning formats.

As a way to combat the lack of cybersecurity education, CompTIA has announced new programs aimed at raising awareness in the workplace, on the road and at home. Visit www.comptia.org for more information on these programs and remember to ask yourself, “Am I being cyber smart?”